> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developer.lemlist.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. > Deletes a lemlist contact by id or email. Cascades to leads, opportunities, lists, inbox and activities. # Delete Contact Removes a lemlist contact resolved by its id (`ctc_xxx`) or email. Only the lemlist record is deleted — **no CRM-side propagation** is performed. Deletion cascades: the contact's leads, opportunities, contact-list associations, inbox conversations and activities are removed alongside it. The request fails with `409 CONTACT_DELETE_BLOCKED` when the contact cannot be deleted right now — for example while an enrichment is still running on it (retry once it finishes); the response `error.message` states the specific reason. A missing contact returns `404 CONTACT_NOT_FOUND`. There is no soft-delete or undo. Once deleted, the contact and its associated leads, opportunities, list memberships, inbox conversations and activities are gone. ## OpenAPI ````yaml delete /contacts/{idOrEmail} openapi: 3.0.0 info: title: lemlist API version: 1.0.0 description: >- Welcome to the lemlist Developer Documentation. lemlist is very customizable and open. You'll find on this page all the API and integration you can do with lemlist. # Rate Limit lemlist's API rate limits requests in order to prevent abuse and overload of our services. Rate limits are applied on all routes and per API key performing the request. The rate limits are **20** requests per **2** seconds. The response provides any information you may need about it: | Header | Description | | --- | --- | | Retry-After | The number of seconds in which you can retry | | X-RateLimit-Limit | The maximum requests in that time | | X-RateLimit-Remaining | The number of remaining requests you can make | | X-RateLimit-Reset | The date when the rate limit will reset | _Example of values for the rate limit headers_ ``` json { "Retry-After": 2, "X-RateLimit-Limit": 20, "X-RateLimit-Remaining": 7, "X-RateLimit-Reset" : "Tue Feb 16 2021 09:02:42 GMT+0100 (Central European Standard Time)" } ``` # Definitions ## Team A team is the entity of lemlist that can handle users and billing. ## Credits Credits are the coins a team uses to enrich emails, LinkedIn URLs, etc. via the enrich route. Each enrichment feature needs a certain amount of credits to run. ## User You use a user account to connect to lemlist and send messages via the connected emails or LinkedIn account. ## Campaign A campaign is the entity to automate outreach. A campaign has multiple sequences composed of steps. ## Lead A lead is a person that you try to contact via a campaign. ## Activity An activity is the history of all the steps. ## Unsubscribe An unsubscribe occurs when a person decides they don't want to receive emails from you anymore. # Authentication All API routes use the dedicated subdomain `api.lemlist.com`. lemlist uses API keys to allow access to the API. You can get your lemlist API key at our [integration page](https://app.lemlist.com/settings/integrations). You need to add the `Authorization` header using the `Basic` authentication type. `login:password` **where the login is always empty and the password is the API key**. ⚠️ **Don't forget to add the semicolon (**`:`**) before your API key in curl command.** > To authorize, use this code: ``` shell curl https://api.lemlist.com/api/team \ --user ":YourApiKey" ``` **Make sure to replace** **`YourApiKey`** **with your API key.** # Give feedback If you want to report a bug, ask for data, or share with us a use case, please fill this [form](https://lemlist.typeform.com/to/mfVlkyGf). It will help us centralize your needs! servers: - url: https://api.lemlist.com/api security: - basicAuth: [] paths: /contacts/{idOrEmail}: parameters: - name: idOrEmail in: path required: true description: The unique identifier or email of the contact example: ctc_XXBXpAxmxwg24IzBI schema: type: string delete: tags: - Contacts summary: Delete Contact description: >- Deletes a lemlist contact resolved by its id (`ctc_xxx`) or email. Cascades to the contact's leads, opportunities, list associations, inbox conversations and activities. **No CRM-side propagation** — only the lemlist record is removed. Fails with `409 CONTACT_DELETE_BLOCKED` when the contact cannot be deleted right now — for example while an enrichment is still running (retry once it finishes); the response `error.message` states the specific reason. responses: '200': description: Contact deleted. content: application/json: schema: type: object properties: success: type: boolean deletedContactId: type: string description: ID of the deleted lemlist contact. required: - success - deletedContactId example: success: true deletedContactId: ctc_xW8Ou6C03Csv8vatp '401': description: The authentication you supplied is incorrect. content: text/plain: example: The authentication you supplied is incorrect '404': description: Contact not found (`CONTACT_NOT_FOUND`). content: application/json: example: success: false error: code: CONTACT_NOT_FOUND message: No contact found with the provided id or email '405': description: Method not allowed. '409': description: >- The contact cannot be deleted right now (`CONTACT_DELETE_BLOCKED`) — for example while an enrichment is in progress. The `error.message` states the specific reason; retry once it clears. content: application/json: example: success: false error: code: CONTACT_DELETE_BLOCKED message: Contact cannot be removed if an enrichment is in progress components: securitySchemes: basicAuth: type: http scheme: basic ````